The present subject matter relates to a flow cell, a particle analysis apparatus, and a particle analysis method.
At medical scenes, it has been desired to realize a small blood test apparatus with which a healthcare worker can quickly perform blood test for a subject (patient). When the sizes of blood test apparatuses are reduced to achieve a higher degree of portability, it is expected to quickly perform blood tests of many patients in medical organizations such as general hospitals and clinics. In particular, among blood tests, an inspection for counting blood cells such as erythrocytes, leukocytes, and platelets in blood is an inspection that is carried out frequently at medical organizations, and therefore, it is important to develop a small hematology analyzer.
Among such hematology analyzers, for example, a hematology analyzer of an electric resistance type introduces a blood sample of a patient into a chamber of a hematology sensor unit and counts blood cells on the basis of a change in an electric resistance when the blood cells pass through an aperture. However, in the conventional hematology analyzer, the blood sample may contaminate the chamber, or bubbles accumulated around the aperture may change the electric resistance, so that this may affect the accuracy of blood cell count.
In relation to this, in order to prevent the contamination and bubbles in the chamber from affecting the accuracy, disposable hematology sensor unit has been developed (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-277380). However, in such hematology analyzer, components for constituting the disposable sensor unit are expensive, and therefore, it is difficult to put the hematology analyzer into practice.
Therefore, the present subject matter provides a flow cell, a particle analysis apparatus, and a particle analysis method that can prevent or suppress the contamination and bubbles in the chamber from affecting the accuracy.